May

The 5th weekly challenge was to list our top ten 80s songs. Like, totally awesome!!! I grew up in the 80s, so thinking of songs was easy, narrowing to a list of 10 was not.

I first started out by thinking of my ten favorite artists, and then picking my favorite song of theirs. But that left out all the fabulous one-hit-wonders! Plus there were some groups/artists I liked more than others. Then I started thinking of “milestone songs” – what was playing during my first slow dance, my first kiss…you get the idea. But there were WAY too many of those.

So, I’m going to clear my mind, and just list out the first 10 80s songs that pop into my head…

1. And We Danced (Hooters)
2. Into the Groove (Madonna)
3. Heart & Soul (Huey Lewis & the News)
4. Physical (Olivia Newton John)
5. 1999 (Prince) – that seemed like an ETERNITY away when I was in middle school! %-)
6. She Bop (Cyndi Lauper)
7. Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
8. I Love Rock ‘N Roll (Joan Jett)
9. This is the Time (Billy Joel)
10. Footloose (Kenny Loggins)

I am thinking of song after song after song now, so I’m just going to stop with the 10. On my ’80s playlist for my iPod, I have over 500 songs! I really did LOVE (totally) ’80s music…

Hey, now I’m caught up on these weeky challenges (I started late). Yay! It’s a nice feeling being caught up – and not one I experience very often! %-)

  

May

Six years – amazing! There was a time right after we got married that I wouldn’t have given us 6 months! %-)

Seriously, Craig is my soulmate, and we have a very good, healthy marriage that we both (I think! get a lot of satisfaction from. In some ways it seems like we’ve been married forever – I have a hard time remembering what my life was like before I met him. But in other ways, it seems like just yesterday that we were standing under the chuppah exchanging vows.

This year, our trip to Disney was really our anniversary present. We were going to go out, but couldn’t get a babysitter, so we decided to have an at home lobster-fest celebration, with champagne. Hopefully it will be fun! My guess is, the key to the fun will be how early we can get the munchkins to go to sleep!

Everyone has left for home now – it’s kind of quiet after having a house full of people all weekend. We had a good time today going downtown and having lunch at Hard Rock, and then walking around. It was a nice, sunny day, not too hot. Grandma left not long after lunch, and Mom & Dad stayed a little while longer. Dayna & Josh were the last ones to go – it was good to be able to hang out with them for a while after all the “grown ups” were gone. How funny is that – I’m 33 years old, with a family of my own, but in the Rouse clan, we’re still “kids” and they’re still “adults”.

Okay, time to feed the munchkins. We’re actually considering giving them a double dose of Benadryl or something, just to make sure they go to sleep so we can have some nice couple time! How horrible is that?!! Seriously, they’re pretty exhausted from the weekend, so they *should* be out pretty early. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

  

May

The 4th meme challenge from Two Peas was to highlight ways we’ve been crafty in our houses.

Hmm…I haven’t done much of this. I have goals to paint quotes on the walls like Lisa Bearnson does in her house – I love quotes! But I haven’t gotten around to it yet. In fact, we’ve lived in our house for 2 years now (!), and I’m not even done unpacking yet. I do have nice art up in the house, but it’s by other people, not me.

Oh, well, no one’s perfect, right? I’m adding this to my goal list – do something crafty in the house. Craig will love it! %-)

  

May

Now THIS is a challenge – a focus on Moms. Relationships with moms are…complicated. I can say very truthfully, I would not be the person I am today without my Mom.

This is my Mom and her Mom, right after I became a Mom…

  

May

Okay, here was the second challenge: come up with a list of 10 stupid things you did as a kid.

Whoa!!! Just ten? This will really take some refining – I did A LOT of stupid things as a kid, especially if one expand’s one’s definition of “kid” to include the college years.

Okay, I’m just going to wing this, putting down whatever pops into my mind, at least whatever pops into my mind that is fit for public consumption! %-) Here goes…Leslie’s “Top 10 Stupids”:

1. I quit Girl Scouts just a few months shy of finishing my gold award, for really no good reason at all.
2. I let my mom choose my hairstyles for WAY too long.
3. I thought going to a fraternity house with some guys my friends and I met at a stoplight (no lie) the night before my high school graduation was a really fun idea. (As an added note, I had to SPEAK at my high school graduation, in front of about 2,000 people.)
4. I thought Rick Pitino was a demi-god (and not a TRAITOR, which is what he really is, offense *definitely* intended for all you U of L fans! %-)
5. I quit playing the piano, again, for really no good reason at all.
6. I thought it was really nice of Citibank to offer me a credit card when I was in college and had no source of income whatsoever.
7. I was a Republican.
8. I tried to back the car out of our driveway when I was 12. I thought I could drive. My dad’s antique Mustang and the shed behind our house thought otherwise.
9. I thought rubbing butter on my skin instead of sunscreen would give me an AWESOME tan.
10. For several years, I really, truly, totally believed that if I moved an inch off my bed at night, Jaws was going to GET ME!!!

What fun memes are! That definitely put a smile on my face. Ah, youth. I could’ve gone on and on with this list! Whatever doesn’t kill us, right?

p.s. We get “bonus points” in the challenge for including a picture – please notice how brave I was to post this picture publicly!

  

May

Okay, now that all that “Idol” business is over…

I knew when I heard about a “meme challenge” that it was something I needed to do! Craig teaches about memes in one of his undergrad classes, and it is an idea that has always fascinated me. Memes are just ideas, but ideas with the potential to cause CHANGE. Memes really are about *social* evolution – just as genes pass physical “information” from one generation to the next, memes pass information on, too. But they pass it much faster – transmission from person to person within a generation.

Anyway, I don’t want to get too philosophical here. The point is, there’s this MASSIVE scrapbooking site called Two Peas in a Bucket. They have a great store, plus it can be a great source of scrapbooking information and ideas, since people can post layouts they’ve done so that others can “scraplift” them. (Warning to the uninitiated: this site can also be a huge time suck! %-). A woman named Tenika, whom I’ve never met, has posted a meme challenge for bloggers on the site. Her idea is that we will have e-conversations in our blogs based on these weekly challenges that she posts. She actually started this last month, so I have a little catching up to do. So, here goes…

Challenge #1 was to paint online. Seriously. There is a site called ArtPad, and it literally lets you create paintings online. You can even frame it! I had much fun at this site!!! The rules for the challenge were don’t think, don’t judge, just do. I did the best I could, but it turns out: a) I suck at drawing; and, b) it is very difficult to use the mousepad on a laptop to create art. Oh, well. I finally settled on drawing a heart, which is a little lopsided, but you still get the idea. It’s in purple, my favorite color. Here is what mine looks like:

Very profound symbolism, eh? You can also view it “live” here: http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?iqnhm31ivs0c . The coolest part of all, when you click on the link, it actually shows me drawing it, the actual strokes I made with the little digi-brush!!! Oh, and one of the options at the site is to add onto other paintings – how cool is that?!! Who thinks up these things?!! I sense a lot of wasted time in my future playing on this site!

Okay, sleep time. Stay tuned for challenges 2 and 3 very soon!

  

May

Okay, I’ve decided to do a “Blog Challenge” to try to help me update this thing more often. We’ll get to that tomorrow, but first and foremost…BO vs. Carrie!!!

I gotta say, I’m very torn on this. Bo is, quite simply, HOT!!! Oh, and yes, he sings really well, too. But, for reasons I can’t even articulate that well, I just love Carrie. She has an amazing voice, and it just FEELS more right for her to win – she’s young, innocent, and exactly the kind of person this show is “supposed” to discover. Bo has been performing in a band for years, plus it seems like he just wants it less. Of course, as a lot of commentators have said, it doesn’t really matter who wins – they’re both clearly going to get recording contracts at this point. Still, it means SOMETHING to be THE American Idol.

Round 1 – both songs were wierd choices, but especially Bo’s. A ballad? His personality still comes through, but it wasn’t his best performance. Carrie’s performance was “pitchy”, but still – amazing voice. I agree with Simon, round 1 went to Carrie.

Round 2 – Craig is in the process of voting for Bo without even waiting until the end, or even hearing Carrie’s second song (we’re watching on TiVo with a slight delay, so we can vote whenever). I’m waiting until the bitter end to decide, since I still can’t make up my mind. Craig doesn’t like country music, and so he’s always been more of a Bo fan than a Carrie fan. Ok, Independence Day isn’t my favorite song of hers, but she did a great job. I’d say round 1 also went to Carrie.

Round 3 – man, this “inside your heaven” song is really sappy crappy. But, now that’ I’ve heard them both on it, I do think Bo did a better job on it. Okay, gott pause for crying kids. I love my TiVo!!!

Back – Carrie was REALLY off on that last song. Round 3 definitely goes to Bo. I think Carrie was just very nervous tonight. She’s just a kid after all! Craig got through once for Bo. I think in the end I’m going to vote for Carrie. I still just feel like she deserves it more. Simon agrees with me – always a good sign. But Bo is so fine…maybe I’ll vote for both! %-)

A brief aside – I saw something amazing today. A website that charges you $29.95, and claims to vote as many times as you want for the American Idol candidate of your choice. I mean, really – I like the show, but to PAY to vote? Especially to a service that can’t verify that it actually does what it says it will do? I don’t think so.

Okay, it’s done – I voted twice for Carrie and once for Bo. But I don’t feel like I’ll be disappointed whoever wins. I know I’ll be buying both albums from iTunes as soon as they’re released!

Leslie (& Craig, sort of), out!